1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup system, and in particular to an image pickup system for picking up images of light from an object to acquire an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a technique for securing an adequate S/N of an image obtained by performing image pickup of weak light from an object by an image pickup device, for example, a technique has been conventionally known in which signals corresponding to a plurality of pixels generated accompanying image pickup of the object by the image pickup device are added and treated as a signal corresponding to one pixel.
More specifically, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-50676 discloses an ophthalmological photographing apparatus configured to be able to switch between a normal mode for outputting electric charges accumulated in respective pixels of an image pickup device as photoelectric conversion signals one by one and a binning mode for outputting electric charges accumulated in adjoining pixels among the respective pixels of the image pickup device as a bundle of photoelectric conversion signals. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-50676 also discloses a switching operation of setting the binning mode at time of observing fluorescence from a fundus and setting the normal mode at time of photographing the fluorescence.
On the other hand, for example, in endoscopic observation, a situation of identifying an object such as a lesion existing in a body cavity of a subject in a distant view and a situation of confirming a detailed state of the identified object in a near view may occur. Therefore, in endoscopic observation, it is desirable, for example, that an image with brightness suitable for screening of the lesion in the body cavity is acquired in the distant view, and an image with a resolving power suitable for confirmation of a detailed structure of the lesion is acquired in the near view.